Icetex in crisis: fewer resources, quotas are falling and subsidies are being eliminated, what's next?

This situation, however, is not the only one that has occurred with Icetex in recent months, in what experts consulted by EL TIEMPO have described as a series of mistakes and blows to an entity that, although in the past was the object of suspicion, is currently the only option for accessing higher education for hundreds of thousands of Colombians.

For some voices such as Alejandro Gaviria, former Minister of Education, "since last year the Government made the decision to defund Icetex by eliminating subsidies. Hundreds of thousands of people are affected."

Although these are strong statements from a voice that has been particularly critical of the current government, the truth is that in the space of a year the role of Icetex has changed considerably, especially due to decisions by the Executive that translate into fewer resources for the entity and a smaller offer of credits.

For educational analyst Ricardo Rodríguez, “it can be said that the Government has indeed defunded Icetex, and that ends up being a defunding of Colombians who needed different aids. These decisions may be derived from the current fiscal situation of the country, since with an underfunded General Budget of the Nation, it needs to make cuts. But it is also possible to interpret it as a deliberate attempt to minimize this institute with political or strategic motivations, given the Government's focus on centering its efforts only on public higher education, which is a mistake.”

Exactly one year ago, the now ex-president of Icetex, Mauricio Toro, was preparing to leave the entity after a management that, although complicated and sometimes questioned, had achieved important changes for the entity, such as the launch of the 'U solidaria', with which many universities committed to assuming the interest rate of the students. The way was also paved for a historic forgiveness, not only of the late payment interest, but of the capital for a significant sector of users.

But everything would change during the months of October and November, when due to a lack of resources and delays in payments by the Ministries of Finance and Education, more than 200,000 young people, all of them users of credit lines subsidized by the State, were at risk of not being able to renew their loans for the 2025-2021 semester.

And although the entity finally managed to open the renewals, the 2025-1 call for new loans with the fewest places in decades, due to the decision not to reopen the lines of credit subsidized by the State for new students, but only those that Icetex finances with its own resources.

The lines that were not opened for this year are those called those of constitutional protection , nothing more and nothing less than educational loans with special conditions that were received by low-income, Afro-descendant and indigenous populations. That is, those who have more difficulties in accessing higher education, and who saw Icetex as their only option to study, this due to the limited number of places that are presented in public universities.

In this way, of the more than 60,000 loans granted throughout 2023, or the more than 50,000 that were given in 2024, Icetex announced that for 2025 only 10,000 credit places will be opened for the entire year, all of them in the short and medium term lines, without rate subsidies, and also without the possibility of accessing the support subsidies that the institute granted to vulnerable populations.

This was confirmed by the Colombian Association of Universities (Ascun) , which brings together the country's main universities: "In a survey carried out by Ascun with its members, it was possible to see that the credits assigned in 2025 only covered short and medium-term modalities, without considering that long-term credit is what is especially needed by strata 1, 2 and 3, which find it difficult to pay their debts in short terms."

He added: “Additionally, the allocation of new loans was sharply reduced in 2025. From the more than 50,000 loans offered in 2024, this year only 10,000 loans were offered, a reduction of 80 percent.”

For Rodriguez, all this, added to the recent decision to end the subsidized rate that users received during the payment period, clearly implies “closing the tap” to the institute, and, intentionally or not, puts the future of the entity at risk: “Regardless of the intentions or motivations that the Government may have, it is a reality that the State is trying to give less and less resources to Icetex. It is true that it continues to contribute, but to maintain its commitments to users during the study period and, I believe, it was more because of the noise that was caused at the end of last year.”

Different voices warn that what is happening with Icetex could completely shake up higher education in Colombia. And the fact is that 40,000 fewer credit places, year after year, would bring pressure on private universities that in some cases depend up to 80 percent of their enrollment on educational credits from this entity, but also on public universities that, despite the government's goal of creating 500,000 new places, would not have the capacity to serve this population.

This is the opinion of education analyst Francisco Cajiao, who says that it is clear that, due to an ideological position, the Government would be ignoring the private higher education sector, without caring about the impact that this decision would bring: “The promises to strengthen public education will not materialize before a decade. Creating a new university or creating new university places is not a matter of overnight. There is a total lack of realism; at this time it is not possible to expand coverage without the current mixed offer.”

The numbers show this. According to data from the National Higher Education Information System (SNIES), private universities have registered 100,000 fewer undergraduate enrolments than seven years ago (a loss of 10 percent), so losing Icetex users would put the system's finances at risk.

At the same time, public universities seem to lack the capacity to meet the Government's enormous coverage goals. In fact, the State University System reports a deficit of 18 billion pesos in the sector, and the educational reform that promises to clean up the finances of these institutions (the reform to articles 86 and 87 of Law 30 of 1992) barely made it past its first debate in the House of Representatives, despite having been filed almost a year ago.

In response to this, Oscar Dominguez, executive director of Ascun, says: “ It is a way of weakening the private higher education system in Colombia, which represents two thirds of the country's institutions and almost half of the enrollment, and it is a step backwards in the goal of new places. Private universities have not been taken into account in the goal. We have clearly asked the Ministry of Education if what they are trying to do is weaken the institutions, they have told us that this is not the intention, but the actions tell us otherwise.”

For Gloria Bernal, director of the Laboratory of Education Economics at the Universidad Javeriana (LEE), withdrawing resources from Icetex is wrong because “the loans are not for universities but for young people who do not study for free, who pay for their loans.”

Now, the elimination of the interest reduction is also a blow to old users. And the most contradictory thing is that this measure had been proposed by this Government on a temporary basis so that later, with a legal reform, it would become permanent. This is how the former president of Icetex, Mauricio Toro, explained it: “These reductions were intended as temporary measures while a comprehensive reform of Icetex was being debated in Congress (which the former official confirmed to this newspaper at the time that he had drafted when he left the entity). Unfortunately, the proposed law that we built with students, debtors and universities has not been processed.”

Subeditor Life - Education